


it's fixed

by silencedmockingjay



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Robots & Androids, Angst, Character's Name Spelled as Viktor, Character's name spelled as Yuuri, M/M, Robot Victor, Robot/Human Relationships, Roboticist yuuri, Robotics, robot viktor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-05
Updated: 2017-06-06
Packaged: 2018-11-08 09:22:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,977
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11078679
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/silencedmockingjay/pseuds/silencedmockingjay
Summary: “There are so many things you can do with electronics, Yuuri,” Minako muses, hands fiddling with the broken wires while Yuuri looks on, eyes glimmering with interest. “You can build, you can connect, you can create.”***Yuuri's always dreamed of being a engineer, building robots, but for that dream he's sacrificed everything else. Including his friends.But robots can be programmed to act however you want, right?So why can't he program a robot to be his friend?





	1. it's fixed

**Author's Note:**

> guess what this is a robot au because i had this idea in my head for a long time
> 
> un beta'ed and written in the span of two days
> 
> happy reading people, hope you won't hate me too much

At 7, it’s Minako who sparks his interest in robotics. 

 

“There are so many things you can do with electronics, Yuuri,” Minako muses, hands fiddling with the broken wires while Yuuri looks on, eyes glimmering with interest. “You can build, you can connect, you can  _ create. _ ”

 

Yuuri doesn’t really understand what Minako’s talking about, about all this  _ building  _ and  _ creating  _ and whatnot, but he listens anyways. Minako is his mentor in practically everything, including robotics, and it would be rude of him not to listen. Besides, robotics is fun! Yuuri’s already learnt how to connect wires to a sensor and make an alarm for himself when he oversleeps, and it’s come in handy everywhere. 

 

He wants to one day be the person to build something so great that it’ll surprise the whole world… like maybe a robot dog that has multiple functions, like maybe a katsudon dispenser! And a function that allows it to talk! And a little hollow in its back that allows it to run to and fro, dispensing towels whenever Yuuri needs them after a onsen shower or a panic attack. 

 

He’s only 7, but he latches onto that small little spark of a flame, and seizes that dream he has, and swears that one day it will come true. 

 

***

 

Everyone knows about the little 10 year old boy at Minako’s shop. 

 

He helps Minako fix things she originally wouldn’t want someone that young to touch. He always giggles shyly as he says he wants to work there when he graduates, to help people fix their cars and robots, to see the delighted look on the customers as they leave with their now whole machines. 

 

It’s always endearing, really, to see how he greets customers with that lovely sun-like smile of his, how he’ll disappear into the shop with bits and pieces of broken things, grabbing a wire or a screwdriver along the way, and reappear 15 minutes later with slicked-back greasy hair and that smile firmly in place again on his face, holding that same thing fixed and back in working order, all polished up and shiny. How his smile will brighten up everyone’s day. How he’ll wave off customers at the shop’s entrance with one phrase, “It’s fixed!” 

 

***

 

At 13, Yuuri wins the National Robotic Championships. 

 

It still all feels like a dream. 

 

He’s standing on the podium, gold medal around his neck, right next to his creation for the contest, his adorable dog Vicchan. The dog that he had once sworn he would make. The dog that is now right next to him, boofing at him happily as he receives his award and 5,000 yen prize. 

 

_ I’ll have to fix his vocal chord later,  _ he muses as he grins happily down at the miniature poodle robot he’s built, he’s  _ created,  _ with his own two hands. 

 

...Or maybe he’ll let it stay. After all, Vicchan isn’t a normal puppy. So why shouldn’t he be allowed to boof instead of woof? It’s cuter anyways. 

 

Although he hasn’t yet figured out how to alter him so he can dispense katsudon or towels, he figures he’ll leave Vicchan as he is. He’s satisfied with how Vicchan is now. 

 

The other kids at his school are starting to give him weird looks and glance in his direction, calling him a freak and a weirdo, for having the capability to build so many machines, for skipping class bonding activities in favour of helping Minako. 

 

He doesn’t care. 

 

He has Vicchan, and that’s enough. 

 

Maybe he’ll finally have a friend. 

 

***

 

Yuuri doesn’t know when he realises he unconsciously pushes away people even though they’re just trying to get to know him, even though he doesn’t want to push them away. 

 

All he remembers is thinking, thinking, thinking. 

 

Maybe that’s why he has no friends at school. 

 

Maybe that’s why it seems like only Vicchan can understand him. 

 

***

 

He’s always dreamed of having a boyfriend, ever since he’s found out he was gay. 

 

But how can he have one, when he pushes everyone away?

 

It just seems too perfect, that eventually someone will come along, to hold him close, to comfort him on dark nights, to stay close to him and never let him go. 

 

Too perfect to exist. 

 

He’ll rather stay with his robots. At least robots can be programmed to act exactly how he wants. 

 

***

 

Yuuri is 18 when he leaves for Detroit, ready to go and study under one of the best and world-famous robotic experts, Celestino Cialdini. Sadly, though, he can’t bring Vicchan with him, and it’s with many tears that he leaves Vicchan in Hasetsu. 

 

Detroit is a foreign city, and Yuuri feels like he’s a weed trying to grow in the pavement, that is small and weak and doesn’t belong. Vicchan not being with him only increases that gnawing feeling. 

 

He has to live alone for the first 2 years, and the idea comes to him one day, unexpectedly, at night, like most ideas of his often do. 

 

It’s a great idea. 

 

Almost instantly, Yuuri throws on a thin overall and races out into the winter night, making his way to the doorstep of the workshop, snitching Celestino’s spare key from behind a potted plant, and lets himself in.

 

He doesn’t want to be found by Celestino - he’ll be in really big trouble if he gets caught. 

 

Good thing Celestino has some spare humanoid robot parts. 

 

***

 

Celestino is unsurprised when he finds Yuuri asleep in the workshop, curled up on the ground and still clutching a few stray wires. Yuuri’s a hardworking boy, really, but he needs to learn how to take breaks once in a while. Celestino’s been catching him snoozing like this in the early mornings for about a month now, and he can’t for the life of him fathom what Yuuri would have been doing that early. 

 

What Celestino  _ is  _ surprised by, however, is the fully complete humanoid robot sitting cross-legged next to Yuuri, watching him sleep with a smile on its face. It would have passed off as human, with a skin tone and clothes and short silver hair, except that he can see the metal gears working to serve as the robot’s limb joints. 

 

Once Celestino enters the workshop, the robot turns and looks at him with a smile, instantly standing up and bowing hastily to him. “Hey!” the robot chirps, “I’m robot model number 251290, otherwise known as Viktor! Yuuri programmed me to be his friend!” Immediately after saying that, the robot breaks into a heart-shaped smile. 

 

Needless to say, Celestino’s jaw drops. A fully functional robot, programmed by one person… and in this much detail, nonetheless. Yuuri had somehow even managed to program in a faint Russian accent in the robot’s speaking… how on earth had he  _ done  _ that, much less managed to complete it in a month? 

 

***

 

Viktor soon becomes Yuuri’s new friend in Detroit. He’s as much a friend as Yuuri can ask for, pretty much acting like a normal person… or as normal as a partially Russian robot can get. 

 

Maybe because of the pre-programmed parts of robots he’d recycled into Viktor, Viktor’s somehow fluent in 4 languages (Russian, French, English and Japanese) and has a lovely heart-shaped mouth. 

 

He, as Yuuri finds out soon enough, also has no concept of personal space. 

 

Apparently one of the people that created one of Viktor’s parts had programmed him to be resistant to water, alcohol, and added a Personality Program to make him really dramatic and… “extra”, as the Internet helpfully provided. Which also involves his excessive hugging and whining. Viktor - as Yuuri’s taken to calling him - is Yuuri’s only friend for the next one year he spends in Detroit. He’s designed to wake up only when he senses the anxiety or panic waves from Yuuri rise to 30 - that being the ten seconds before a panic attack - but since Yuuri’s lonely without Vicchan, he just keeps Viktor on all the time. 

 

It makes him feel like he has a friend. 

 

***

 

On Celestino’s convincing, Yuuri sets a shutdown command for Viktor. 

 

It’s a verbal command, given only once, that will be able to completely shut down Viktor and completely render him useless. Just in case he goes rogue, Celestino says. 

 

The shutdown command is “It’s fixed.” 

 

***

 

Yuuri is 19 when his world shatters. 

 

He remembers it all right - the way his world shrinks to a spiral, the urgency in Minako’s voice, Mari’s sobbing, the utterly guttural and hopeless noise that had came from his throat when his oldest companion’s eyes dimmed right before him, his small metal body already badly disfigured from the hit he had took when the car had hit him, the way his head tilted and drooped to the side like it was unhinged. Oh, he still remembers it clearly. 

 

What he can’t remember, though, is when he hung up on the call and the panic attack started, because the next thing he knows, Viktor’s gathered him in his arms and is sitting on the sofa, rocking him quietly, using one of his slender long fingers to stroke the sensitive side of Yuuri’s neck. 

 

They both just sit quietly on the sofa, hugging each other, and Yuuri’s thankful that he made Viktor waterproof, because he’s bawling into Viktor’s chest like a baby. Good thing Viktor was specially programmed to help him with his anxiety attacks, because he works like a charm and next thing he knows he’s drifting off to sleep in Viktor’s warm hug.  

 

It almost feels intimate. 

 

Like… something between… 

 

Between… 

 

Yuuri drifts off to sleep before he can complete that sentence. 

 

***

 

Yuuri is 20 when Celestino tells him he’s going to get a roommate. 

 

He has almost no warning before a whirlwind of a Thai boy slams open the door, whirls into the house, and stops in front of Yuuri, holding out a hand and grinning. 

 

“Hello!” he chirrups, holding out a hand for Yuuri to shake. “My name’s Phichit Chulanont!” 

 

Tentatively, Yuuri takes Phichit’s hand. “Ah… hello, I’m Katsuki Yuuri. Or just Yuuri.” 

 

“Alright, Yuuri!” Phichit chirps happily. “I’m going to be the best roommate ever! By the way, you don’t mind if I bring my hamsters, right?” 

 

“You have hamsters?” 

 

“Hell yes! Look at them - they’re in the cage by the door, and their names are Gold, Silver and Bronze!” 

 

“Wow… they’re so cute!” Yuuri tentatively pokes a finger into the cage, and laughs when all three of the hamsters sniffle at his fingers. 

 

“See, they like you,” Phichit giggles. “By the way, what are you studying under Celestino?” 

 

“Ah.. mostly engineering and robotics, you?” Yuuri asks. 

 

Phichit’s jaw drops. “That’s so cool! I’m studying computer programming, mostly, so I can program your robots while you build them! We’ll make a great team!” 

 

Slowly, a small smile begins to grow on Yuuri’s face. “Alright.” 

 

_ Maybe friends aren’t so bad at all.  _

 

He doesn’t notice Viktor peeking out from Yuuri’s door, smile wistful. 

 

***

 

Here is what Viktor does after Phichit arrives. 

 

Shoving open Yuuri’s bedroom’s window and climbing out, he jumps from the 2nd storey apartment and lands on the ground. Then, he sets off to Celestino’s workshop, letting himself in by the back door with a key hidden behind the potted plant. 

 

_ Ah, that’s the bench Yuuri built me on,  _ he realises, heading towards it. How fitting. 

 

_ It’s time, isn’t it Yuuri?  _

 

He’s sitting on the bench now, leaning slightly backwards, staring at the door. 

 

_ It’s time.  _

 

He closes his eyes. 

 

“It’s fixed.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> EDIT: Yuuri set the shutdown command for Viktor to "It's fixed" because he regularly said it at Minako's shop as a child, and since Viktor was originally created to help Yuuri combat his anxiety, the only reason Yuuri would shut down Viktor eventually was if his anxiety was "cured". (I put quotation marks because it can't really be cured, but you get what i mean.) So in a way, the "It's fixed" means "It (the anxiety) is 'fixed'". In a way, it's also a roundabout way of saying "The problem's solved. I don't need you anymore."
> 
> EDIT #2: i wonder how many people noticed Viktor's serial number was his birthday ;)


	2. welcome home

Yuuri finds him too late. 

 

He bursts into the workshop, already a mess, tears already falling from his eyes, his shirt wrinkled and crumpled.

 

_ Too late, too late,  _ his mind sings, as Yuuri catches sight of his defeated, sad figure on the bench, head drooping, and he falls onto his knees beside Viktor, besides the robot he created and brought to life with his own two hands, besides his only  _ true  _ friend in the world. 

 

“You stupid fool,” Yuuri whispers, hands fluttering all around Viktor, checking his essential working, fixing a metal plate that had probably gotten dented during Viktor’s journey here. “What did you do?” 

 

It isn’t until he gets to the control panel, swings open the hinges on Viktor's forehead, and sees the control disk that his heart sinks into his stomach. 

 

“Oh, Viktor…” he breathes, staring at the charred, burnt and dented control disk. “Why…” 

 

***

 

The shutdown sequence is simple for robots: it triggers a reaction in the control disk to break the coolers keeping the “brain” of the robot from overheating. 

 

Once the shutdown sequence is activated, it cannot be stopped. 

 

In essence, the sequence will burn the control and memory disks in the robot’s brain. 

 

The data will be lost. 

 

It can never be retrieved again. 

 

***

 

It’s damaged.

 

Very, very badly damaged. 

 

Yuuri can barely make out the individual sensors on both disks, the delicate copper in the wires burnt to crisps, the metals still warm to the touch. 

 

Only one thing could have triggered this, and Yuuri knows what it is. 

 

“The shutdown command…” he breathes, swinging his head towards Viktor’s body. “Viktor,  _ why? _ ” 

 

Viktor, of course, gives no reply. 

 

***

 

Yuuri knows there’s only one solution to this. 

 

But he’s afraid. 

 

So, so, very afraid. 

 

_ What if the Viktor that wakes up again is not the same one i know before? What if Viktor goes rogue?  _

 

_ If he goes rogue, or isn’t the same, or is damaged or broken in any way…  _

 

_ It’ll be my fault.  _

 

_ All my fault.  _

 

***

 

He’s putting more hours into this project than any before. 

 

He can’t remember Viktor’s original building being this long. 

 

Phichit and Celestino are getting worried, seeing him work this hard, wielding metal to metal, attaching sensor after sensor, connecting wires to power outlets and zapping electricity through them. 

 

But it doesn’t matter. 

 

He has to finish this before Viktor’s original body rusts from the elements. 

 

He has to. 

 

Because if not… 

 

_ I can’t lose another friend again.  _

 

_ I have to fix this mistake.  _

 

_ Before…  _

 

***

 

Somehow, he manages to salvage one last remnant of Viktor’s memory, in a small microchip that miraculously survived the fire. 

 

It contains only the last two thoughts Viktor’s had before he activated the shutdown. 

 

_ “Phichit will be able to do what i have never been able to do. To cure your anxiety. To actually fix you. I’m sorry, Yuuri… Sorry that i couldn’t do what i was supposed to do.”  _

 

_ “It’s fixed.”  _

 

***

 

It’s a difficult task, reprogramming Viktor’s essential memories one by one, implanting all the memories into one memory disk. But Yuuri has to do it. 

 

He has to, if he wants the original Viktor back. 

 

***

 

They’re finally ready. 

 

Yuuri’s holding them in his hands now, dreading what will happen if he places it into the control panel and connects it. Phichit’s standing right behind him, a comforting presence, but Yuuri knows with an aching certainty it isn’t enough. 

 

He’d give anything for him to feel Viktor’s presence behind him. 

 

Viktor’s presence had always been more than just comforting. It had always made Yuuri feel grounded, feel happy… like Vicchan. 

 

What Vicchan hadn’t been able to do, however, was make him feel a little less lonely. 

 

Viktor had done exactly just that. 

 

_ What if, what if, what if…  _

 

_ This could change everything.  _

 

_ It could bring him back… or it could change everything that I know about him.  _

 

_ Used to know.  _

 

_ In case this fails, Viktor…  _

 

_ I’m sorry.  _

 

“Are you going to rename him?” Phichit asks, frowning a little. “You’re not sure if he’s going to be the same, right?” 

 

“If he isn’t the same…” Yuuri mutters, one hand raking through his hair. “I don’t know what he’ll do. I don’t know what  _ I’ll  _ do.” 

 

“But this is in a way his rebirth, right?” Phichit points out. “So why not rename him?” 

 

“It’d take too much out of me,” Yuuri laughs drily, hand involuntarily pulling on his black locks. “It’d… be too unfamilar, you know? I had him for 1 year and I grew so attached to him… only for this to happen… “

 

“But it’s a good idea,” he adds as an afterthought. 

 

Phichit nods. “Ready?” 

 

His tone holds a question.  _ If you don’t want to do this, we can do it another day. Waiting won’t do anymore harm. _

 

But Yuuri’s suffered for so long without Viktor. 

 

He can’t wait anymore, can’t bear the silence, can’t bear the wrongness, can’t bear that missing feeling that gnaws at him, can’t bear seeing him slumped like this, with no life in him anymore. 

 

He just wants him back.

 

“Ready,” Yuuri breathes. 

 

***

 

The first sensation he’s aware of is warmth. 

 

The second thing he’s aware of is two very blurry presences, in front of him.

 

Once his eye lenses focus on them, he… recognises them?

 

The one standing behind is medium height and has tanned skin, and black eyes. He can feel something stir in his stomach - is it resentment? Jealousy? But he can’t tell. 

 

The one he’s focusing on now, though, is black haired and wears blue glasses, and he instinctively recognises him. 

 

_ He’s my creator.  _

 

His creator stretches out his arms for a hug, and instinctively, he stretches out his arms too, mirroring his actions. 

 

That’s all he does before he’s enveloped in warmth, in his creator’s arms, and something stirs inside him this time as well. But it’s much more comforting. 

 

_ Maybe this is where i belong.  _

 

“I managed to do it,” his creator whispers, and the sound of his voice sends a shudder down his chest. “I did it. I fixed you. Oh my gods, it worked.” 

 

He can see the boy in the background smiling, wiping tears from his eyes, but all he can focus on now is how  _ beautiful  _ and welcome his creator is. 

 

“Welcome home, Vitya,” Yuuri whispers, and in that moment, all Viktor can think is  _ oh.  _

  
He’s home. 

**Author's Note:**

> hope you enjoyed!!!!!
> 
> This is just something i posted to kind of update my AO3 page a little, my rewrite sucks and it's the only thing up there for now. But anyways, I'm in two bangs at the moment so expect two more fics by the end of the year (and hopefully more!) 
> 
> Come scream with me on tumblr at overcome-chihoko!
> 
> EDIT: Yuuri set the shutdown command for Viktor to "It's fixed" because he regularly said it at Minako's shop as a child, and since Viktor was originally created to help Yuuri combat his anxiety, the only reason Yuuri would shut down Viktor eventually was if his anxiety was "cured". (I put quotation marks because it can't really be cured, but you get what i mean.) So in a way, the "It's fixed" means "It (the anxiety) is 'fixed'". In a way, it's also a roundabout way of saying "The problem's solved. I don't need you anymore."
> 
> EDIT #2: i wonder how many people noticed Viktor's serial number was his birthday ;)
> 
> EDIT #3: I MAY be doing a part 2 for this, so stay tuned!


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